NEW PALTZ – The auditorium known of Room 101 at the SUNY New Paltz Lecture Center was about half full when the meeting to hear comments on the new Minnewaska State Park Master Plan convened on Thursday, October 22.

After initial remarks from Thomas Lyons, Director of Resource Management, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation; and Mark Hohengasser, Park Planner; the people who wished to make public comments were invited to the microphones.

Steve Aaron, first to speak, said the plan should do more to open up the Smiley Road entrance to Minnewaska via the Berme Road Park in Ellenville.

A number of other commenters also mentioned improving access from the Ellenville entrance, and from the other entrance points on the western side of the park, such as Mine Hollow Road.

Wawarsing resident John Adams, for example, said, "The planners should take note of the economic impact the park could have on Wawarsing, which is struggling now with 17 percent unemployment, a depression level. Efforts should be made to help shift tourism to Ellenville, and to cut the congestion at the main entrance on 44/55 by promoting use of the western entrances, such as the one on Berme Road."

Looking beyond Ellenville and the Rondout Valley's interests, the meeting was dominated by recreational users. Dozens of climbers made the same basic pair of points. Climbers are good park citizens. They have taken part in clean-ups, and are vigilant caretakers of the park, removing trash, and not leaving any. However, they feel marginalized by the park management scheme, which restricts climbing to just a small area of the park.

Following the climbing community were the mountain bikers, who expressed interest in single-use trails just for mountain biking as a way of taking the pressure off carriage roads and multiple-use trails.

Also represented at the microphones were cross-country skiers, swimmers, hikers, and even an occasional voice in favor of "preservation."

Swimmers bemoaned the restrictive attitude of New York State towards swimming at public spaces. There were echoes here of the state's restrictions on rock climbing.

Skiers spoke of the need to groom trails in winter and to make the link open between the Minnewaska trails and those of the Mohonk Preserve, which creates one of the largest cross country ski networks in the world.

Perhaps the most memorable comment came from a member of the Gunks Mountain Bike Association (GUMBA) who declared that "the Gunks are dying. Over-browsing by the deer herd has prevented any seedlings from growing to replace mature trees, and Japanese stilt grass is invading the park."

He suggested doe culls, and even consideration of the use of sheep and goats to crop down invasives, something that has been used elsewhere.

One recreational community that was absent from the comment meeting was that of the hunters, who are the only likely line of defense against the rampant deer.

Two days after the meeting, Mayor Jeff Kaplan, spoke to the Journal about some of these issues.

"I spoke to Jim Hall, Executive Director of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. Basically, he said he understood our position and would like to help us. But of course, there's a couple of issues. One is money. I've walked the Smiley Trail and it would need a lot of money to fix it. The other problem is that the Berme Road Park, which would be the entrance way, is owned by the village, and these Master Plans only address property owned by the park system."

But, added Kaplan, "We would be happy to sit down and talk to the Palisades Park people about some kind of relationship with Minnewaska. The problem is they don't have any money right now."

Kaplan said that, "bottom line, we as a community want to see this work."